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What do you use to tell stories for your Sims?

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What do you use to tell stories for your Sims? 121 votes

The Sims 1 photo albums
0%
The Sims 2 photo albums
4%
PrincessrozeeSDijktafonewaterywatermelonOldeseadoggeStrawberryYogurt 5 votes
The Sims 3 scrapbooks (only custom memories get included, no auto memories)
0%
The Sims 4 screenshot manager (still wish for better organization and picture arrangement like a real storyboard)
1%
EvvieSimmerOnverser 2 votes
Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
20%
MonaSolstraalehaneulCynnaSue_D_Nimcchant86ArchivisttaydevInfraGreenAriisshiddengnomesjazzunicornsrjssimSims4MagicalTalesnanashi-simsEnkiSchmidttexanskyCattyBetsyBrandontaylorPlumbeeborenjiAi 25 votes
Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
4%
BreeSashaCinebarAstroDuvelinaVicThaKillaLamaaaay 6 votes
The "story" is all written in my head.
67%
Erja888WrenryAyradyssPlayerSinger2010AZ25BLUExoJessiTheSpotted_CIsb917maggiemae8135simgirl1010MagdaleenaluthienrisingKennziKaigemueller_liteGlimmer50duhboy2u2simsinmysleepSerendipity38BabykittyjadeTrowicia 82 votes
All of the above
0%
TeeSea 1 vote

Comments

  • waterywatermelonwaterywatermelon Posts: 473 Member
    The Sims 2 photo albums
    Dang it, I was about to include Some of the Above and None of the Above and Other... options.

    *sigh*
  • IsharellIsharell Posts: 1,158 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I tell my stories in my head. I've tried to take photos for a proper story, but I find myself getting tense and impatient when I "miss" an expression or action. It's too distracting, and I takes away from my fun.
  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    The Sims 2 photo albums
    As a writer, I find the TS2 albums indispensable for story telling. It transforms routine simming into what amounts to a graphic novel, something that can be explored, developed, and gone back to. Back in the days of the TS2 website those stories - text and pictures - could be shared with the greater simmer community. That part of the site amounted to an online writer's group where we shared and commented on one another's' work, possible because we had a concrete means of doing so. It turns a game into an art form.
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,707 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I tell my stories in my head. After years of journaling, and documenting, and taking photos and sharing on various fan sites with TS, TS2, and TS3 I was ready to just play when TS4 came along.
  • Hauk150Hauk150 Posts: 358 Member
    Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
    I always love to photograph and write my stories, I have a lot of fun with them. I make image sequences in powerpoint, and write a lot on it too, that way I find it easy to organize stories, descriptions, showcases, game moments. I also make word documents to write down future ideas to make :)
  • SnowBnuuySnowBnuuy Posts: 1,767 Member
    edited June 2021
    Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
    I use a blog to tell my Sims' stories. The only exception is that most of one of my 'legacy' playthroughs is just a folder of screenshots on my USB, since I ran out of plot ideas : P
    they/them or she/her
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
    Most of the 'stories' are in my head. But I started doing machinima way back in TS1. I fine tuned that in TS2. I still use MS' Movie Maker (original) to put together the pictures and videos. I have tried many other type video editors but I found that is the best one as 'free' software to use. I actually like editing videos and pictures to make up a story more than actually telling what happened in the game. I enjoy the editing most of all.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • waterywatermelonwaterywatermelon Posts: 473 Member
    edited June 2021
    The Sims 2 photo albums
    @Cinebar Are your videos published anywhere on the web?

    As for movie-making software, I also like Windows Movie Maker. It's simple to use, intuitive, ton of features, and best of all, FREE. However, Windows Movie Maker is an outdated piece of software, and my current computer doesn't come with it. So, I have learned to use the next best thing on the market: VideoPad Video Editor. The FREE version does wonders for me already, and it is possible to upgrade it to the full paid version.

    Example: https://youtu.be/AS915imcm9A
  • Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I say this, but obviously the game mechanics help. Some level of autonomy and UI help define the characters, and if I want to get picky there are no characters without CAS or setting without BB or plot without live mode so the whole game itself is a tool.

    Beyond that... Back in the day I messed with Sims 2 photo albums. It wasn't super serious (I tried to recreate Meerkat Manor with Sims, because that was a child's thought process) and nothing I would be willing to show then, much less now. In 3 I wanted to set up a world down to the tiniest details with CAW so I actually took the time to write it all out in a text document, kind of like I would a story, with everything down to the resident families.

    I was a lot more into grander pretenses when I was younger, but if I was truly inspired I would do similar with writing things down now. The only problem is that I am not so inspired with 4 as a tool. If I have some sort of grand fantasy I would rather write it instead of forcing it into the Sims, so I need to have some inspiration from the game itself. While I do have enough to play, it isn't enough to do things in addition.
  • HavenRoseHavenRose Posts: 322 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I have a notebook where I hand write my stories out after each gameplay session, just so I can keep track of what each family was doing (I have a dozen households I rotate through). There’s also space in there for writing out stories ideas for where I want to take my sims. I take lots of screenshots of my gameplay, and I’ve used pose player a few times to set up a few shots. I keep meaning to make a tumblr or something to share my stories, but setting it up will be a nuisance.
  • waterywatermelonwaterywatermelon Posts: 473 Member
    The Sims 2 photo albums
    @HavenRose You can just use PowerPoint or Google Slides to create slideshows. If you choose PowerPoint, then you may upload the PowerPoint slides to Google Slides. From there, you can have a Google Slides presentation. You can customize the slideshow however you want, maybe even make it exactly like how it was on The Sims 2 official website for nostalgia.

    Just some ideas.
  • OnverserOnverser Posts: 3,364 Member
    The Sims 4 screenshot manager (still wish for better organization and picture arrangement like a real storyboard)
    Not a" storyteller player", but I screenshot basically everything interesting that happens and usually post it so I'll go for that one
  • AstroAstro Posts: 6,651 Member
    Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
    I just take screenshots or videos of something interesting or something new that I’m doing in game and I post it either here, Reddit or YouTube.
  • DuvelinaDuvelina Posts: 2,619 Member
    Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
    I have a blog where I write one of my stories, I also share other stories on my Twitter and share those same stories to Tumblr.
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited June 2021
    Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
    @Cinebar Are your videos published anywhere on the web?

    As for movie-making software, I also like Windows Movie Maker. It's simple to use, intuitive, ton of features, and best of all, FREE. However, Windows Movie Maker is an outdated piece of software, and my current computer doesn't come with it. So, I have learned to use the next best thing on the market: VideoPad Video Editor. The FREE version does wonders for me already, and it is possible to upgrade it to the full paid version.

    Example: https://youtu.be/AS915imcm9A

    wndy10010TS2 on youtube. But please if you watch any of my left overs, make sure to watch in a small viewer as TS2 and TS3 doesn't look good with today's Youtube humongous viewer size. Makes things pixelated but used to look great on the old Youtube viewer. I need to clean up that channel but I used to have dozens and dozens from all three games posted but have a limit now.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • SleepstarSleepstar Posts: 814 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I tend to imagine what my Sims would think or get up to while playing. I have several ideas for stories set in different Worlds one day
    Currently aiming to get all harvestable produce in The Sims 3 (One EP left)Will complete a Legacy one dayhttps://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=katcalls2k907 (My Wishlist)
  • ArchivistArchivist Posts: 4,375 Member
    Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
    For sharing with others, I'll photoshop screenshots from my game into a comic like the one below and post it on the forums or on my blog. These comics are usually pretty light on story and more for humor. A lot of the time the captions have little or nothing to do with what was happening in the actual story I was playing out when I took the pics.

    LPOf1oX.png

    For keeping track of the story as I play, I take a ton of screenshots and keep them in folders numbered by season (like seasons of a TV show). Whenever a storyline completes or reaches a good stopping point, I'll start a new folder/season and continue from there.
    Below: what my screenshots folder looks like with all these subfolders. I used to take notes to keep track of everything, but nowadays the pictures themselves kind of work like storyboards to remind me whatever was going on the last time I played.
    0RyHoBN.png
    9d9hOnJ.png
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I guess this one fits the best...?

    Actually I use folders in Windows to store my screen shots. Each story gets its own folder (or set of folders, since I only keep up to 999 images in a single folder, and some stories have been going on long enough to need multiple folders).

    I use the image name to number the images in chronological order and to give them a short caption that fits the story. So an image name might look like "237-Ari is upset at Mandy".

    For most of the stories, that's as far as it goes. The rest of the story is in my head.

    But in a few cases, I write the story and use the screenshots to illustrate it. I use Text Maker for that, but that's just a writing program like MS Word. If I want to share with people I make PDFs of the chapters to email to them, because at this point in time, I'm not putting my stories online.
    Forum-Banner-01.jpg
    Seventeen & Maldusk Forum thread link
    My name on AHQ (and the upcoming sims forum) is "GlacierSnowGhost".
  • Karababy52Karababy52 Posts: 5,952 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I chose this one because there really isn't a better one for how I write my stories. I have a blog, but only used it for one story and only a couple chapters. That's it. However, at the beginning of this year I started a challenge I made that will last all year long and have been posting a story with it for my challenge Sim here on the forum in the challenge thread. What I do is use Imgur to upload the screenshots to a titled slideshow album for each day. I write the story as 'captions' under the screenshots and then transfer it all here to be put under a spoiler in the thread. In the main post of the thread, I have folders for every month with a link to each day's post in the thread.

    Back in TS2 days, I used the in-game story photo album feature. Mostly just for myself, but I did post a couple to the Exchange for contests and for a collaborative story written by members of my forum.
  • SimsAddict_244SimsAddict_244 Posts: 274 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    Never used anything else beside what I had in my head in that specific moment. I occasionally took pictures but I never really use them to tell stories. It's more fun like that imo, especially when something unexpected happen and I have to adapt.
  • AngelEb95AngelEb95 Posts: 1,538 Member
    The "story" is all written in my head.
    I have a general storyline in my head for my sims, but I've never actually done anything with it. I want to try one day.
    attack-on-titan-attack-on-titan-s4.gif
  • taydevtaydev Posts: 912 Member
    Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
    A mix of Google docs and written in my head because I haven’t got half of the story written down. I also use TierMaker and The Plumb Tree to keep track of all relationships.
  • EnkiSchmidtEnkiSchmidt Posts: 5,334 Member
    Personal website or blog (great for written stories)
    A mix of a blog that (almost) nobody reads and "it's all in my head". I do keep a written chronicle for my main save, but it only tracks the major events. "Gavin and Daniel had a great vacation in Strangerville" won't go into the chronicle (but the memories live on in dozens of screenshots).
  • VicThaKillaVicThaKilla Posts: 33 New Member
    Social media website, such as YouTube or Twitter or Facebook (great for written or video stories)
    I tell my Sims 4 stories on my YouTube channel and website.
  • CK213CK213 Posts: 20,525 Member
    The Sims 4 Challenges, Stories and Legacies forum
    The%20Goths.png?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds
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